Dublin Life & Culture.

Pub Crawl, January 2011 (Pubs 69-73)

Unless you’re a newcomer to CHTM, you’ll know that on one Sunday a month the three of us, in the company of a small group of friends head out on a pub crawl, with pubs carefully selected by one member of our troop but not revealed until we’re standing outside the door. Five pubs with a bit of history thrown in, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Unbeknownst to ourselves, we hit a landmark on January’s crawl and didn’t celebrate it in style. We’ve been wondering how long it would take us to reach the hundred pubs mark on CHTM! and we did it here, and in less than a year- with three of our number drinking bottles of Lech and another a Lithuanian beer called Svyturys in O’Byrnes Bar, on the corner of Capel St. and Bolton St. Don’t get me wrong, we found it to be a lovely place; any pub with an open fire gets our vote of confidence pretty much straight away. It was just the fact that we thought our hundredth pub would be a great pint of Guinness in an institution like Mulligans or the Lord Edward; our fault really, covering them in the first couple of pub crawls.

O'Byrnes Bar, taken from the Tale of Ale blog

O’Byrnes though- a lovely pub with sound staff and a great taste in decor- the walls are bedecked with some classic 7″ records alongside old Hot Press covers and obligatory pictures of the Dubliners, Thin Lizzy and the likes. We neglected to take the comfy looking couches inside the door in favour of the seats down the back beside the (unfortunately dying) fire. This place has been known as a “corner of death,” in that any business opened here in recent years rarely lasts too long, but the current owners have done a fine job in bringing something to the place, offering a range of Irish craft beers and ales which come highly recommended from the excellent Tale of Ale blog. Great tunes filtered in over the stereo too, a mix of classic and Irish rock. As nice as it was, its a pub I’d like to return to on a busy night to really see what its like. As with all of the pubs on this crawl, there was no smoking area. Lucky we only had the one smoker with us so!

Bodkins, by the ever brilliant Infomatique, from Flickr

And so, we ventured across the road to Bodkins. Probably our first “student bar” to visit on a pub crawl, this was more a space filler between bars one and three than one I’d normally pick. Lets call it a “cultural experiment.” We were joined here by a pub crawl newbie and happily started into the Guinness. €4 a pint, not bad for the city centre, but certainly not the best pint of Guinness we have tasted on our rounds; a bit of an aftertaste and it lost it’s head very quickly. They do a €5 bar menu and thats probably the cause of that. They also have free wifi and do a “laptop loan” (“unless you’re an asshole” as per their site, which is fair enough.) There’s not many places left in the city centre with pool tables, but this being the closest DIT Bolton Street has to a student bar, you can see why they’re there, alongside a signed Man. Utd. jersey in memory of a young lad that passed away, a jukebox and plenty of televisions showing the footie. It has drink deals (three bottles of Sol for a tenner and that kind of thing, ) but in complete opposite from our next stop, its certainly no local.

Cumiskeys, taken from Google Street View

Our next stop? Up towards Broadstone Station and into Cumiskey’s on Dominick Street. Happy to get in out of the wind and drizzle, we took up a spot in the corner just inside the door. I’ve been in here a couple of times before, and it really is the epitome of a regulars bar; it has the feeling that you’ve just walked into someone’s sitting room, and for me, thats certainly no bad thing. There was no barman either when we walked in, soon to be remedied as a man we later found out to be the owner welcomed us, took our order and told us he’d drop it down. A snug, welcoming pub with an obliging barman? Heaven. €4 a pint here, and we were joined by another couple of pubcrawlers, JohnF and Ang, and a special guest in the form of Tommy Graham from History Ireland magazine. Tommy is a regular here and himself and his better half filled us in with the history of the Hendron’s building across the road and of the surrounding area.

I’ve read reviews of this place that marked it negatively for being a regulars spot, but we certainly didn’t have that issue, and this was one of those pubs that one pint became three and we were tempted to stay for more. I ended up wishing that I’d started the pubcrawl here, as I’d originally intended to do, as at least then we could have had a 100th pub worthy of a place in the top five pubs we’ve visited over the last year or so, or at least ended it so we could stay as long as we wanted. My top five, if you want to know, and in no particular order were: Cumiskeys of Constitution Hill, Mulligans of Poolbeg Street, Mother Reilly’s in Rathmines, the Lord Edward at Christ Church and the Dame Tavern, off Georges’ Street; Not all because of how I rated their Guinness, that was one of the main reasons, but for atmosphere, uniqueness and “returnability.” Unfortunately we had to stick to rules and take in five pubs so the time came and we had to leave Cumiskey’s. Some of us had a Bohs fundraiser to head to, others planning to make their way to the excellent Sleepless Soul night in The Good Bits. All I have for this place is praise, a lovely pub, with lovely people and a lovely pint.

We bypassed McGowans’s (the Copperface Jacks of Broadstone) and headed into The Phibsboro House. Guinness was the drink of choice here and again rang in around the €4 mark. Deep in Bohs territory, where some of us feel at home, DFallon was behind enemy lines, most definitely in this bar, a meeting point for many Gypsies fans before home games.

Clarkes Phibsboro House, from Google Street View

A large bar that stretches way back, it is divided into two by a wooden partition and a swinging door. We were the only people in the front part of the bar at the time, while there seemed to be a good crowd in the back, coming and going from the toilets. Its generally around this time where things start to get fuzzy for me and tonight was no exception. (We really should bring out a dictaphone on these adventures, the conversations tend to go from interesting to surreal fairly quickly.) I do seem to remember some a poster with Jack Charlton on it and a framed Irish Volunteers poster. A nice place, but we didn’t stay too long, heading onwards toward The Hut, deep in the heart of Phibsboro, and mine and JayCarax’s stomping ground.

The Hut is a place I’ve seen a fair bit of as its generally my pre-game drinking spot. A good Bohs bar this, taking it’s name from the old dressing rooms in Dalymount. Pre-game, The Hut is generally thronged with young and old wrapped in red and black. Not tonight though as we take up residency in the snug behind the bar, somewhere I’ve never ventured before as it’s occupied by long established regulars during the day. I neglected to take my notebook with me on this pubcrawl and to be honest, the buttons were starting to get blurry on the phone (modern technology, eh?) so I don’t recall the price here. From previous visits, I think it was around the €4.20 mark and the one thing I do remember is it was a great pint, and we stayed for a couple; then again I’ve never had a bad pint here before so I wasn’t expecting one now! It’s a solid local bar, and one thats often frequented by the prison officers from Mountjoy; during the daytime the preserve of regulars, with the horses on telly and lads in and out to the bookies nearby. But on a Sunday night, the weekend was winding down and the place was far from packed and the football highlights were on with few taking any interest apart from ourselves. The staff, as usual were polite and weren’t slow to serve. The problem with a lot of city centre bars is staff who’ll only take one order at a time. I can’t imagine them getting away with that in here.

So onwards and upwards it was, some to Dalymount, some for a dance at the Sleepless Soul night. A good day of drinks and chatter, and while I was going over old ground, it was covering new territory for the others. I hope it was as good for them as it was for me… The next pub crawl belongs to JayCarax.

One Response

There are barely any decent boozers in Phibsbronx, any time I’ve been in the Hut I’ve been accosted by racists. Your average Sunday after noon crowd, are the fucking screws from Mount Joy which is around the corner. It was my aunt that pointed that out to me, and after a few pints trapped in the snug on a roll over Sunday with a crowd of them behind me I fled fairly soon.

Was in Byrnes there last weekend. Amazingly friendly staff, and really nice cheap Lithuanian food food on the service. Definitely one of the nicest pubs I’ve come across in Dublin in the past while, amazing selection of beers on tap and bottled too. Massively reasonable prices, like what 4e for a pint of craft beer? Fuck your Guinness!